Hurricane Isaac contract awarded by Jefferson Parish president after council delays

One of the cherished prerogatives of the Jefferson Parish Council is the authority to award professional service contracts. Not only does it give the council leverage over accountants, architects, engineers and the like when they don't perform up to par, it's also an opportunity to give some business to campaign contributors.

Chris Granger /The Times-PicayuneZack Nagy, 13, center, and friend Jake Crossen, 8, play basketball Wednesday in River Ridge near bagged debris from Hurricane Isaac. Jefferson Parish President John Young awarded an emergency contract to monitor debris removal after the Parish Council failed to reach consensus before the storm.

But the council missed its chance to award one potentially lucrative contract, to monitor removal of Hurricane Isaac debris, because it was dissatisfied with the evaluations of the competing companies. Instead, with Isaac bearing down on Louisiana last week, the choice fell to Parish President John Young.

Using emergency authority granted in state law, Young gave the job on Aug. 28 to Science Applications International Corp., a 43-year-old McLean, Va., outfit that boasts a portfolio of services ranging from cybersecurity and energy consulting to health-care technology and supply-chain management. The company has not contributed to the political treasuries of Young or the seven council members since at least 2006, according to public records.

The unusual circumstances of the contract award grew out of a process that began last spring, when the parish advertised for companies to remove debris in case of a disaster and for ones interested in monitoring the actual removal. "If you don't have a debris-monitoring company, you're probably not going to get reimbursed by FEMA," Young said.

On June 13, the council tapped Ceres Environmental Services Inc. of Hammond, Ind., to remove debris in East Jefferson in event of a disaster and DRC Emergency Services LLC of Mobile, Ala., to work in West Jefferson.

But the council failed that day, as it had in May, to award the monitoring contract. At the time, council Chairman Elton Lagasse said members questioned how a parish evaluation committee had scored the proposals of the competing companies. Science Applications, or SAIC, was not among the 11 companies seeking the work, officials said.

Council members Paul Johnston and Cynthia Lee-Sheng said Wednesday the council appeared at the time to be moving toward giving the monitoring job to one or both of two Louisiana companies: All South Consulting Engineers of Metairie and Shaw Coastal Inc., part of a Baton Rouge family of companies called The Shaw Group. Without considering price, a parish technical evaluation committee ranked All South No. 1 with 472 points on a 500-point scale and Shaw No. 2 with 464 points, according to public records. (Read this evaluation report.)

All South has held several non-emergency contracts with Jefferson Parish over the years and is a prolific campaign contributor. It has given a total of $41,900 to the current council members and Young since 2006.

Shaw Coastal has held the disaster debris-monitoring contract for some past hurricane seasons. Shaw and related companies have given council members and Young $16,000 since 2006.

When the issue came up again June 28, the council threw out all the proposals and ordered the contract advertised a second time. SAIC and eight other companies responded this time.

The top three technical proposals, as determined by the evaluation committee were:

Shaw Coastal, 476 points

SAIC, 471

All South, 462.

Once price was factored into the scale, however, changing the maximum possible score to 667 points, SAIC ranked No. 1 with 632 points. Shaw, 594 points, fell to fifth place, and All South, 583, fell to sixth. (Read this evaluation report.)

But by the time Isaac arrived last week, the award process had not made it back on the council's agenda. Lagasse said the council might have taken up the matter at its regularly scheduled meeting Aug. 29, had the storm not prompted him to cancel the session.

Lagasse said he had no objection to Young's choice. "We had to have somebody, and he had the authority to do it."

At this point, it's impossible to know the value of SAIC's contract. The company is to be paid hourly rates, depending on the type of personnel it uses.

Young said the contract he awarded is only for Hurricane Isaac. He said he expects the council to award a regular, two-year monitoring contract on Sept. 19.